Heavy Networking 508: Should Network Engineers Learn Advanced Programming Languages?

Today’s Heavy Networking explores what it’s like to get deeply into programming while still being attached to the world of networking. We discuss the transition from day-to-day networking tasks to spending more time with code, the role of programming in automation, and what’s changed and what hasn’t over the past ten years. Our guests are Matt Stone, Brent Salisbury, Dave Tucker, and Daryn Johnson. This episode covers: * Reasons to expand your career to encompass programming * Job opportunities at the intersection of networking and coding * Programming and automation * The role of open-source software * The case for Rust and Go over Python * More Sponsor: ThousandEyes ThousandEyes gives you performance visibility from every user to every app over any network, both internal and external, so you can migrate to the cloud, troubleshoot faster and deliver exceptional user experiences. Sign up for a free account at thousandeyes.com/packetpushers and choose a free ThousandEyes t-shirt. Show Links: BGP implemented in the Go Programming Language – GitHub SALT + NETBOX + VYOS = NETWORK AUTOMATION
 + ROUTING SECURITY  – Presentation by Marek Isalski (PDF) Matt Stone on Twitter @bigmstone Brent Salisbury on Twitter @networkstatic Dave Tucker on Twitter @dave_tucker Daryn Johnson on Twitter @dirtyonekanobi